


Feelings Are Fatal

by hopclair



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Angst, Bisexual Lucas Sinclair, Bisexual Mike Wheeler, Blood, F/M, Gay Will Byers, Hanahaki Disease, Happy Ending, Lesbian Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Pansexual Dustin Henderson, Pansexual Eleven | Jane Hopper, Sad and Happy, Sad with a Happy Ending, Surgery, Unrequited Love, Vomiting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:21:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28454529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopclair/pseuds/hopclair
Summary: Mike is utterly in love with his best friend. He’s known that for years. He knows it in the way that his heart races when she’s around him, when she laughs making his heart feel healed, when she smacks his shoulder and he doesn’t mind. But he knows that she doesn’t love him back by the way that the tiger lillies attach themselves to his ribcage, rip through his throat and spill out his mouth.He really shouldn’t have fallen in love with his best friend.[Hanahaki Disease is a disease in which the victim coughs up flower petals when they suffer from one-sided love. It ends when the beloved returns their feelings or when the victim dies. It can be cured through surgical removal, but when the infection is removed, the victim's romantic feelings for their love also disappear.]
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper & Mike Wheeler, Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler, Maxine "Max" Mayfield & Mike Wheeler, Will Byers/Lucas Sinclair
Comments: 3
Kudos: 11





	Feelings Are Fatal

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!! It’s been a while since I wrote anything for the fandom! I felt myself drifting from it but after a mileven clip, I realized that I adore them still and well, here I am. 
> 
> Before I write anything, I want to mention something.
> 
> \-- !! The party’s sexualities are in the tags and I write on my own headcanons. I know that Max is dating Lucas in canon and that none of their sexualities are confirmed. This however is a fic, so i’m having fun with it :) !!

Michael Wheeler had always thought highly about love. Even though he was a twenty-one year old in college with too many papers due, he’d still find a moment to call his little sister and gush about whatever movie they had seen that weekend. He was a hopeless romantic and he could blame his mom for that one. That’s why he never sees this as a curse. He simply sees it as loving somebody with all his heart and not having the _luck_ of being loved back. 

It burned. He swears that he’s never felt any pain like this when he’s clutching his sink and there’s bright flowers splattered in his sight. Yet it feels like nothing when she told him to scoot over so that they could watch a movie together or when she’d fall asleep on his shoulder after a study session. He’d smile sadly and his heart would thump in his ears yet he’d still brush the bright strands of orange out of her face. 

They’re currently sitting in math class, shoulders pressed together and they’re playing tic-tac-toe on Max’s etched notebook. The duo had the grand idea of pushing math class for their second year of college, wanting to dive into more exciting classes, and it was probably the dumbest thing they’ve ever done. People did it all the time, that wasn’t a problem, it was simply so _boring_.

“Won again, Wheeler.” Max whispers and she has that familiar smirk on her face. It’s the smirk she gives him when he loses at anything they do. Her eyes glow in mischief and her lips seem a little bit more pink. Maybe it’s because she bites on them while she waits for his next move. 

He goes breathless. 

It’s not the standard ‘you’re so beautiful’ breathless. He wishes that it was. Instead, it’s the familiar ‘there’s flowers in my throat and I need to throw up’ breathless. He forces himself to laugh at her words and he feels a petal tangle itself in his cords. He tries to swallow it down but he knows that his attempts are futile. 

“I’ll be back.” He says through his teeth and she nods at his words. He sometimes wishes that she’d notice why he disappears randomly but then again, Mike Wheeler can’t afford to lose the best friendship he’s ever had. 

As he makes his way out the door, he feels himself getting sicker by the minute. He feels the petals wrapping themselves tighter around his throat and the air being squeezed out of his lungs. As he makes his way to the bathroom, through the exhausted college students, he realizes that he won’t make it in time. He already feels the petal brushing his tongue. 

He’s on a scholarship, he knows this, but he has let everything out of his body. That’s why he simply leans to the closest can and spills his guts there. It hurts, whoever is paying attention to the lanky student can tell, but he’s thankful that nobody is. 

_Petals. Petals. Petals. Petals. Petals._

A sigh of relief leaves his mouth when he scans the petals and he doesn’t see a single thorn in sight. The English major has googled and asked around a little too much, he knows that when a thorn leaves your mouth… it’s over. He’s thankful that it hasn’t eaten him whole **yet**. 

Michael takes a step back, the bright flowers in display and he’s wiping the back of his mouth in relief. Only for anxiety to bubble over his body when he catches a hand giving him a water bottle and he freezes.

Was it Max? 

He scans her hands and a sigh of relief leaves his mouth. It’s not Maxine. He had stared at her hands enough to know that. Her hands were softer, her fingers were usually decorated with rings and she still held that California tan. These hands were pale, rough around the edges, and they had scars everywhere. 

He accepts the water bottle and turns to look at the stranger. 

And for a second, _only_ a second, wonders how many pretty girls are in this school. 

She has dark brown hair, her hair pulled into a messy bun with sticky strands around her face and she’s shoved into a navy blue hoodie. It’s unzipped enough for him to spot the single diamond dangling from her necklace. She looks kind, even if her eyes are cold and she hasn’t spared him a single smile. 

“Cold water helps. It calms the ache.” She says plainly and after those words leave her mouth, she drops something into the trash can. It’s what looks like an empty bag but he doesn’t think too much of it. He knows it’s to cover the petals. 

He’s shaky and drinks the water with no hesitation. She only watches him bleakly and Mike catches how her eyes hold no sparkle. It’s almost like all the life has been sucked out of her body and he only shivers. Why was she helping him? 

The stranger reaches for her pockets, pulling a mint out and only offers. No words shared. He doesn’t know why he accepts. 

“I have to go to class now. Drink warm tea later and a warm rag helps too.” She says and she’s so nonchalant that it makes him curious. She’s so expressionless that it’s like she didn’t see anything at all. Who even was she?

She turns on her heel, ready to leave him there and he reaches for her shoulder. It stops her in her tracks. Obviously. 

“Wait.” 

“Well, I can’t go anywhere with your hand on my shoulder.” She says, a little too blunt and he winces. Her eyes are wide and she’s waiting for his words. Even if she’s not facing him.

“Who are you? Why did you help me?” 

A sigh or a noise of frustration, leaves her mouth. “That’s what you wanted to ask me?” 

Silence. 

“I know what it’s like and I hated being looked at with pity.” It’s supposed to hold pain. Her words are supposed to hold emotions but they **don’t**. “So I simply did what I would’ve wanted somebody to do for me… Nothing personal.” 

. . . 

“My name is also Eleanor.” 


End file.
